...and the short of it
We get behind the wheel of the Land Rover Defender 90, the three-door version of the iconic SUV reinterpreted for the 21st century, to find out what the shorter wheelbase brings to the table and what it takes away from it
Earlier this year we drove the new generation Land Rover Defender 110 and were thoroughly impressed by its neo-retro design, its ability to emulate the utilitarian feel of the Defenders of yore without compromising on the level of luxury one would expect from an expensive SUV and its performance both on and off the road. At the 2021 World Car Awards, Land Rover took home the World Car Design of the Year award for the Defender, and it also drove home with the 2021 Premium Car of the Year Award by ICOTY. For 2021, Land Rover India has added the Defender 90 variant to the lineup, which is essentially the shorter wheelbase version of the SUV with fewer doors and fewer seats, but there’s much more to it than meets the eye.
At first glance, one might find the Defender 90’s looks a bit odd-ball, more so if you’ve mostly only seen the five-door Defender 110. I, too, had my reservations, but my opinion swiftly changed the moment I saw the Defender 90 in the flesh. There is certainly something very appealing about its three-door silhouette and, for what it’s worth, the 90 is likely to generate more intrigue and turn more heads than the 110. At 4,584mm long, the Defender 90 is 435mm shorter than the 110 and the relative deficit in wheelbase is the same as well. Aside from this very obvious difference the rest of the SUV with its boxy lines infused with modern touches like LED lighting is identical to the 110. The Defender 90 is more than 2m wide and 1,969mm tall (air suspension) endowing it with immense road presence dwarfing most other cars around you.
With the interiors, Land Rover has done a stellar job of marrying luxury with utilitarian touches. It doesn’t just look and feel great inside, but the Defender also sets itself apart from most other luxury SUVs on sale. Grab handles at either end of the dashboard, exposed rivets and tactile feeling buttons all help relay a feeling of robustness while high-quality leather draping parts of the dashboard and on the seats help keep the luxury quotient high. The 10-inch touchscreen display, all-digital customisable instrument panel and the whole host of features the Defender boasts serve as a reminder of this being an all-new 21st-century version of the iconic SUV. Our test car came with electrically adjustable front seats with memory settings and heating and cooling functions. The lack of rear doors makes getting into the rear bench a bit of a task but the large front doors, a fact that gets highlighted every time you park too close to the vehicle next to you, help ease ingress/ egress to a certain degree. Space for those seated in the back is quite ample with sufficient headroom, legroom and knee room. However, the seat squab is a bit short and the seating position is slightly knees-up for it to be too comfortable over longer journeys. Amplifying the feeling of space is a large DLO, windows along the edge of the roof and a panoramic sunroof.
The Land Rover Defender makes liberal use of cameras to relay feed to the driver that enhances convenience and provides assis
GRAB HANDLES AT EITHER END OF THE DASHBOARD, EXPOSED RIVETS AND TACTILE FEELING BUTTONS ALL HELP RELAY A FEELING OF ROBUSTNESS
tance while venturing off the road. Secondrow headrests or passengers and the tail gate mounted spare wheel can severely obstruct the view in the rearview mirror. A flick of the button on the mirror switches to feed from a camera integrated into the roof-mounted shark-fin antenna to give the driver an unobstructed view. The central screen beams feed from cameras located all around that help you see the terrain and possible obstructions not just around the vehicle, but even under it.
While our test car, in its P300 AWD Automatic variant, came with a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, buyers can opt for 3.0-litre petrol and diesel mills or even a 525bhp 5.0-litre V8. Don’t be fooled by the P300’s engine’s cubic capacity though as this 2.0-litre four-cylinder produces 300bhp and 400Nm. The Defender 90 moves quicker than you’d expect it too, and it even sounds pretty sweet for a 2.0-litre motor. 0 to 100kmph comes up in 7.1 seconds, 0.3 quicker than the Defender 110 P300, and it can hit a top speed of 191kmph. The 8-speed torque convertor on duty does a fine job of shuffling through the cogs. Equipped with the optional air suspension, ride quality is remarkably good at all speeds as the Defender manages to eat up all the roads imperfections with ease. Push it hard around a bend, though, and the softer setup and body roll will force you to keep the speed in check, but that shouldn’t be seen as a negative considering the Defender’s intended use. The presence of just two on-road modes – Eco and Comfort – and that of as many as five off-road modes further underlines what this SUV is meant to excel at.
With a Land Rover Defender for company not only can you venture off the tarmac onto off-road trails, but off these trails as well. It ploughs through mud, ruts, gravel and slush with consummate ease giving the driver the confidence to tackle the worst any terrain can throw at it. The Defender is the sort of vehicle that can make a novice look like a hero over challenging off-road sections. Compared to the 110, the 90 is lighter, easier to handle thanks to the reduced footprint and boasts a slightly better ramp over angle. Of course, testing it to its extremes we avoided, but it was abundantly evident from our tryst with fairly challenging off-road trails that its ability to handle inhospitable terrain is among the best in the business.